For the past year, the Starfinder Society has been searching for Ongie, a ysoki engineer on the run from the corporate overlords that have ruled her hometown for nearly a century. Known in Ongie’s hometown of Braerton as the Mongers, the Starfinder Society has recently come to suspect that the Mongers are the same group that they’ve been hunting all year—the mysterious Organization. If this is true, it’s likely that Braerton has an important role to play in Project Dawn, an ongoing plan enacted by the Organization that will result in the death of millions if they’re not stopped. Finding Ongie has become a matter of life and death.
Unfortunately, the Starfinders aren’t the only ones hot on Ongie’s trail. Organization assassins have been after Ongie since her escape from Braerton three years ago, and have finally cornered her on Vesk-7. If the Starfinders don’t act fast, Ongie and all the information she possesses will slip through their fingers.
It's a bit uncommon, but all of you have received an invite on AbadarCorp Mutter, the video calling app that is so common in the Pact World. The invite lists you as required, as well as a participant '@dealmaker'. Booked for a whole of 30 minutes, so somebody is short on time...
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Radaszam “the Dealmaker,” a vesk with emerald scales and knowing eyes, flickers into existence on the comm display. The faction leader sits at a desk in his private office, with a view of stars through a window behind his chair.
“I apologize for the remote connection,” says Radaszam, “but things are moving fast right now for the Society. We need your help for a crucial task.”
Radaszam folds his hands together and leans forward as he continues. “As you may know, the Society has had a thorn in its side lately, and we don’t even know the proper name for our foes. The Organization—that’s all we know it as—has been working against us for over a year now. We know too little about them and their motivations, which puts us at a sizable disadvantage. But we think we may have identified someone who can help change that.
“On Kortus IV, there’s a colony called Braerton that we’ve dealt with in the past. A ysoki inventor named Ongie used to live there a few years back. Up until recently, everyone thought she had died. As it turns out, Ongie actually fled Kortus IV and has been in hiding for years. The group she crossed that forced her to disappear is likely the Organization itself.”
Radaszam casts a glance over his shoulder and gestures at the stars. “It cost us a great deal, but we’ve tracked Ongie down to Vesk-7, a frigid world on the edge of the Veskarium’s Ghavaniska system. She’s hiding somewhere in a little colony called Forget. We need you to find Ongie and let her know that the Starfinder Society wants to talk with her. We can offer her protection and any other reasonable measure needed to secure her cooperation. What she knows could help us turn the tide against the Organization. But you have to act quickly—if we’ve found her, it’s a good bet that the Organization has as well.”
I caught that you prefer the Thunderbolt, that good old Drake? I can send you the access code, though if you prefer the Azata or the Pegasus, I'll leave the choice up to you.
Radaszam looks a bit puzzled Inventor? Ongie's an ysoki grease rat, quite gifted with gears and innovations. She fled Braerton after crossing a group called the Mongers—we suspect this group has some connection to the Organization. Ongie stood up to the Mongers over the poor treatment of
local miners, which brought the Mongers down on her head. She faked her death, fled Kortus IV, and has been on the run ever since. Ongie’s canny enough to have stayed off everyone’s radar for a few years, and she’s likely to be paranoid, too. You’ll need to convince her quickly that you’re there to help, or she’ll probably assume you’re assassins sent to silence her.
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A small, grey-skinned humanoid listens attentively. Unfortunately, as they lack vocal cords, he needs someone else to relay his telepathic comments to Radaszam.
So, basically we need to convince someone with a healthy dose of paranoia, and an *actual* legitimate risk to their life, that we are not the ones after it, all the while avoiding the people that *are* after it?
They then look between themselves and Felicis.
I hope someone a bit better at cajoling is coming along on this mission; I am afraid that I am the sort that is more skilled at data-analysis and specimen collection, than diplomacy...
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"Ice world, interesting, a bit like the other side of home" Cettara said, although the small redhead's robes looked more suitable for desert. "Can we get some kind of official paperwork of that offer of protection? Could come in handy to convince her."
She looked a bit startled by Felix, but smiled. "Nice to meet you"
"I've been told I can be pretty convincing, I'll try my best"
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A drow dressed in black armor smiles and says Mizzrym', but you can call me Mizz.
After listening to Radaszam and his comrades he saysI agree with my comrades, we need more evidence to show to Ongie that we are there to help and not a front of the Organization.
Do we have any other info to help us track her on Vesk-7? What about the local force, can we ask them for support or are we totally undercover?
Paperwork? You're fully commissioned agents of the Starfinder society, that gives you the mandate for protection. If your actions don't convince, I don't think a forgable piece of paper will either.
We propose to bring Ongie to Absalom Station and put her under our protection. She’ll have the full security of the Lorespire Complex to keep her safe. Beyond that, you’re free to negotiate on the Society’s behalf. We can give her credits, resources, information—you can meet any reasonable request she puts forward. We’ve operated without reliable intel about the Organization for far too long, and the information Ongie’s gathered is of primary importance. Sweeten the deal however you need to, so long as you convince her to come of her own free will.
You'll find that Forget is truly on the outskirts of the Veskarium. In fact, there's rarely ever any intervention from the authorities, so I wouldn't count on them being any help. I'd keep a low profile, don't rock the boat, but feel free to ask around for leads.
Cettara knows some background information she learned from browsing after action reports. The Starfinder Society dispatched agents to Kortus IV to investigate the fate of a colony ship, only to find that the colony, known as Braerton, was apparently prosperous and self-sufficient. A mysterious group later identified as the Mongers was secretly in control of Braerton. The Mongers seem to have a complete lockdown on information about Braerton and had agents actively hiding the colony from the Pact Worlds.
Travelling to the Vesk system always takes about a week (Exactly [dice=3d6] days to be precise). On sixth day of travel, an alert flashes across a computer terminal, indicating that someone is attempting to make contact. Preliminary scans show no vessel within range, suggesting that the transmission originates from outside the Drift. The message itself, however, is nothing more than noise and gibberish.
Loki figures out the message is embedded in noise, and needs to be played back with bridge speakers polarity-inverted, in quad mode. Once the setup modification are made the message plays back to simply say: “They’ve located her. Hurry.”
The Thunderbolt drop out of the Drift, and it take another hour to zone in on Vesk-7. Locating Forget via scans is a simple matter even with the poor scanners on the Drake, and the landing pad is just outside the community limits.
The docking authorities make little fuss. Around here, the population mostly seems to comprise of humans, pathras and androids, and orbital scans seem to indicate a community of about 12000.
Forget is supposed to be in the warmest region of Vesk-7, but the place is still hellishly cold, with frequent blustering snow squalls and icicles hanging off the eaves of every building.
Loki notices that most of Forget’s buildings are patched into a central grid consisting of buried power lines that can’t get blown down due to harsh winds. Anyone seeking to live outside the city long-term would have to patch themselves into the grid, purchase a well-made generator, or locate an established structure that was deliberately built to be self-reliant.
They pick up on some rumours on local structure. Particularly interesting is a pair of abandoned structures near Forget that drew power from outside the central grid. A power plant east of the colony was decommissioned prior to the current grid being established, but it was obliterated by a major earthquake a few years ago. To the north, the now-defunct Ridgerock Prison had its own set of backup generators to make sure that an outage in the central grid didn’t give prisoners a chance to escape.
Mizzrym points out that snow drifts are high around Forget, which makes leaving the town difficult. But someone has subtly cleared a small path to travel north of the colony. Major obstructions, such as downed trees, fallen foliage, and large ice chunks.
The uncovered trail is intermittent and covered with snow drifts in some spots. Following it long enough, though, reveals a subtle but direct path to an abandoned facility known as Ridgerock.
Loki has actually heard of Ridgerock: Ridgerock originally served as a prison in the early days of Vesk settlement of the planet. As a high-security facility, its location in a frozen waste served as an escape deterrent, as those who got outside its walls would have to contend with the brutal cold.
The rising cost of maintaining the prison eventually made prohibitive to house prisoners, and Ridgerock was eventually emptied and decommissioned. Following the founding of Forget, the Vesk repurposed Ridgerock into a military training facility. However, as the limited resources made it difficult to maintain a sizable official presence in the area, the Veskarium closed Ridgerock for a second time.
The Veskarium made one further attempt to utilize Ridgerock for something practical, by transforming the isolated site into a military surplus storage facility. The advancement of technology eventually rendered the surplus obsolete, and much of the equipment once kept in the facility was simply abandoned rather than removed
What remains of Ridgerock lies approximately a mile and a half north of Forget.
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Cettara is clearly unused to this kind of cold, and although bundled up still isn't faring well. However, it barely dampens her wide-eyed enthusiasm to see new places. "Wow! I've never seen anything like this. Does this powdery stuff fall from the sky all the time?"
"It does, but we better by careful. Outdated military technology doesn't mean not dangerous."
Trekking a mile and a half to the north is normally not that difficult, but the heavy sleet and snow that sets in when the group departs makes the trek all that harder.
Most of the squat, gray complex known as Ridgerock has surrendered to the frigid elements around it. Snow drifts pile high around the building, but one entrance remains mostly clear and unobstructed. The sliding metal door shows signs of tarnish but otherwise is in remarkable repair considering the building’s age. A keypad sits in an indented section of the wall.
Loki manages to rewire the closed and open wires of the lock, and simply typing in the wrong keycode now does the trick to open the door. As long as you don't type the right one by accident.
Dim lighting originating from panels in the walls casts the interior of Ridgerock in a dull yellow glow. Comfortable interior heating fights off the bitter cold from outside, and small, dirty puddles from melted snow pool on the ground. Around the corner, a long, wide hall is lined with hooks and racks, holding all manner of coats, boots, outdoor gear, and tools.
The coats are sized for Small humanoids, though some of the coats and sweaters have two sleeves and others have six sleeves. The tools are well used but disorganized. There's a laser drill, two batteries, and a fire extinguisher.
Loki and Mizzrym have a look around, but everything of interest was clearly visible.
There's a door to the east, which leads to a storage room.
The room contains crates, construction materials, and sundries. There’s a mound of UPBs and an obviously valuable gemstone sitting atop the crates in the north corners of the room
There is a slight issue with 'leading the way' for the group: no obvious next door is visible in this compound.
Loki searches the room, but find no other doors. The compound is big, but the secure entrance the group came in is the only visible one.
Mizzrym has a good, long look around in the second room. First of all, that pile of UBPs and gem is indeed a bit too obvious, and is connected to a pressure plate.
Also, when he scans the room, a wayward snowflake falls down along the wall, and then just disappears. When Mizzrym has a closer look, he finds that part of the wall is not real, but projected with a holograpgic projector.
Loki disables the trap, and deduces it is connected with a shrapnel-flinging device on the other side of another holographically hidden passage.
The gem looks to be quite useful.
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Deeper in the compound, a long corridor wraps around. A bit more searching reveals some more holographic walls and a large room in the middle.
The large room has a second, smaller room nested at its center, with one-way windows that hide its interior and ceiling-mounted weapons at each of its walls.
Speakers in the ceiling crackle to life, and a high-pitched voice echoes through the area. “Nasty little sneakies have gone hunting for the wrong furry friend! Now Baazo the Defender will make sure you don’t go no further!”
Hah! My burnydooms will stop you from finding my tailfriend! No evil starfinders will... wait, what?